Illusions
by Fangirl Jessums
Summary: FF:TSW, Jane's POV, Sort-of-AU. When Jane and Neil discover the cozy little apartment they live in (*cough* No, don't worry, Jane still hasn't cracked and told him...) is really a prison, what will they do to get out and save their friends?
1. Prisons and Lies

A/N- You're probably all going "Sort of AU? What?". It's because everything that happened in the movie... happened. *coughs* All will be explained... ...some day.   
  
This should please Terra. Or horrify her. *smirks* "Jess, how the HELL could you torture those poor FF.N-ers?!" *shakes her head* Well. Deal.  
Jane's OOC... a lot... at times... *coughs* If it bothers you, bite me. Or flame. It's pretty chilly here.  
  
And I still don't own 'em. But! I can make them do what I want! Ahahaha!  
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Chapter 1-  
  
It was a Monday, and that's basically all I knew at the moment. Just a normal Monday. I wanted two things now: bed, and coffee. Or Neil and coffee. Or Neil and bed. I grinned to myself, but wiped it off my face as I stumbled out of my room in a pair of ratty old shorts and an old t-shirt. The carpet felt soft under my tired feet, and I padded across it to the kitchen, waking up more when my feet hit the cold linoleum. Neil was sitting at the table, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I made a face. Why did people have to be so cheery at... what was it at the moment? 7 AM?   
"Rise and shine, Jane, Darling." He said, grinning at me over his cup of coffee.  
"I'm risen. No chance of me shining. And what did I tell you about calling me darling?"  
"…sorry." he added in a small voice. He looked around the room and I blinked at him.  
"What?"  
"Just looking for cameras."  
"Jesus, Neil, for the thousandth time: There are no cameras in this apartment. Got it?" He shrugged, and I ignored his sulky face as I got myself a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, sitting down across from him.  
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Two cups of coffee and a bowl of cereal later, I was fully awake. That was also partially thanks to the hot shower I took. I changed into a pair of jeans (kind of tight, might I add… I was getting way too much fun from this alone-with-Neil-can-tease-him-as-much-as-I-desire thing.) and a black tank top, pulling my hair back into a ponytail and pulling on a pair of boots under my jeans. I walked back out to find Neil scavenging around the room. He stopped when he looked up, nearly falling over at the sight of me. I didn't hide my smirk.  
"What are you doing?"  
"I'm just checking."  
"…Neil, you're paranoid." He shushed me, looking around the room. I heard it a second later-a small beeping noise. He followed it and found a small tape recorder, pulling out the tape and holding it up.  
"Paranoid, huh?" I blinked and walked over, looking it.  
"All in favor of getting out of here?"  
"I." Neil walked towards the door and I grabbed two guns just in case, managing to tuck them into my jeans. We walked out and downstairs, then outside. The moment we set foot outside an alarm went off and we took off running.   
I pushed Neil out of the way as one shot at us, and we turned the corner.  
"Can you run and carry me?" I questioned. He blinked. "CAN YOU?!" He nodded and I wrapped my legs around his waist, facing behind him with my hands over his shoulder, clutching my gun. He ran pretty fast for someone who was holding another person's dead weight on top of them… . A few turned the corner and I shot at them, managing to take out three of five the first try. I shot at the remaining two and they fell. We turned the corner and he put me down, and we grinned at each other. We might've almost kissed, but I looked away to see where we were. I walked down the hall, gun still in hand. What I saw when I turned the corner amazed me. Ryan was in a cell, looking malnourished and beaten. My eyes widened. I knew they had to be playing tricks on me. Ryan Whittaker had died in battle three years after the phantoms were defeated… …so how could he be imprisoned? In his OWN base? No. Gray had come to us and told us that he had died, he wouldn't lie and stick his best friend in prison! My stomach lurched. Had Gray had a little power trip and locked up Ryan, accusing him of something that wasn't his fault just so he could say he had people in jail? I managed to tear my eyes off Ryan and look at Neil, who was wearing the same expression as I probably was.  
We walked quietly down the cold metal hall, towards Ryan. Once we got to the door, Neil whispered at him. "Serge!" …I almost said it myself, to tell you the truth. Since Ryan's "death" and Gray being appointed the new general (it was more like world leader with the way he had been acting, though...), there had been no squad. So we were supposed to be on a first name basis… …but it didn't seem to matter since the only ones left were me and Neil, and we were already "Neil" and "Jane" to each other.  
Ryan stood, walking over. I winced at the state he was in, but he still managed a smile at us. "Neil, you can call me Ryan."  
"Sorry." Neil mumbled.  
"Shit, what did they do to you?" I asked, looking at him. He smirked.   
"No one knows? Well of course they wouldn't know, after all, Gray's supposed to be the hero." Ryan chuckled, more to himself then to us.  
"They told us you were dead." I was losing patience, partially because of Ryan because I KNEW he hadn't been like that before whatever happened that got him in here. And because of the lies. I was brought up on lies, and now there were more being thrown at me? What a joke.  
"I'm supposed to be. Didn't go the way they wanted. So they just don't feed me." He looked at us, thoughtfully. "People coming in here said you two were locked up."  
"We got out." I said, wiping blood off of my shoulder where a bullet had grazed me. Neil's eyes widened.   
"When did you get hit?" I shrugged it off.   
"We'll get you out of here, hang on."  
"You can't. If you don't use a card then when you pry open the door lasers replace it. I tried." He held up one burnt hand, and I winced again. "Just promise me you two will get out of here. Stay away from Aki and Gray, they aren't who they were."  
"Who are they?" Neil questioned, but I heard a far away clamor of voices.   
"Quiet!" I demanded.  
"Get out of here, now."  
"We're not leaving you here." I whispered.  
"Listen, you two act like I'm still your Sergeant, so listen to me and get the hell out of here. That's an order." He said, looking at me.  
"We'll come back." I promised.  
"Not right away. Lay low for awhile. I hope you two make it out of here." He said, taking his place in the corner again. Neil took my wrist and lead me up the corridors. We knew some of them, but after the ordeal with the Phantoms everything had been renovated. We kept running until…  
"Dead end." I heard Neil's voice, with a trace of panic in it.  
"Shit." I said, turning to run back the other way. Instead, I came face to face with Gray.  
  
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How bad was it? ...no, seriously. How bad?  
  
Flame, my children of the night! Flame!  
  
*skips off towards the sunset with Bingo* 


	2. Fleeing, Questions, and Hope

A/N- ACK! *almost gave herself a heart attack when the file wouldn't open* Four chapters would be down the drain! Ack... ack... *breathes* I don't expect you all to love it, but it's something, and I'm proud of it, so...  
~~~  
  
Chapter 2-  
  
He stepped towards us, a particularly evil look on his face. "So the puppies escaped, huh?" Puppy? Oh please, if you're going to go insane/crazy/mental/power hungry/whatever, you can think up something better than puppy. I stayed quiet, looking for some way out of this mess. I saw a vent above us, and right as he pulled a knife from his pocket and was advancing on Neil with it, I shot him in the stomach. If Gray and Aki weren't who "they were", then there might be a chance of getting them back, so no sense in harming them too much, right?  
I broke the vent and pushed myself up, helping Neil up quickly. He shed his watch and threw it in the opposite direction so they would go that way. It obviously worked because Gray yelled at someone behind him to go find them. We hurried out, and didn't stop running until we Neil couldn't run anymore. We still had some money (enough to support us for a small amount of time, anyway), so Neil checked into a motel for us, and I collapsed on the couch.  
"What is going on?" He panted, tossing me one of the room keys. I caught it, though we were probably not going out for awhile.   
"If I knew… I would tell you. But right now we do the running and laying low part."  
"For how long?"  
"I don't know, Neil."  
"We have to go back for him."  
"We will." I stood, though my legs protested, and after a second caused me to fall back on the couch. I rubbed my face, trying to think. Ryan was imprisoned, Gray and Aki were psycho… Dr. Sid had been dead for a year and a half. I scoffed. Neil looked up.  
"What?"  
"Just wondering if they killed off Dr. Sid too." Neil looked down for a second, then joined me on the couch. I closed my eyes, and for the first time since I had lost Neil, I nearly cried. He touched my arm, and I opened my eyes, blinking back any tears, and looking up at him.  
"We'll figure it out." He said, squeezing my hand.  
"I know we will, I'm just wondering when. And I'm wondering what the hell is going on and why…" My eyes moved to the smudged, water stained coffee table before us.  
"If we get Ryan out of there, we'll know." Even though he didn't mean to, it felt like it was all on me to get Ryan back safe.  
"Listen, Neil, I'm doing my best to think of ways to get our asses in and out of there to save Ryan." I snapped, and though I regretted what I said, I wasn't one to apologize.  
"Don't do that." His voice softened, and I kept my gaze down.  
"Do what?"  
"Act like it's all depending on you." …Read my mind much?  
"It is."  
"No it isn't, Jane. I'm here too, you know." I shrugged.  
"Everything is upside down."  
"I know." He wrapped one arm around my shoulders, holding me close as we sat there. Any other time I would push him off, but I was too tired and besides, it felt good …though I probably wouldn't admit it to anyone. He fell asleep after awhile, but I couldn't. A million thoughts were running through my head. Like, How will we get Ryan? Is Dr. Sid in jail too? What happened to Aki and Gray? And the question of the moment was, Should I let Neil go? Would he be out of danger or in more if I kept him with me? He was only a year younger but I couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him. If we were caught we would be imprisoned, beaten, possibly killed. If I let him go and he was caught, the same thing would happen. Would he be better off with me suffering with him? I slipped from his arms carefully and stood, but the shift of the couch woke him up and he blinked back sleep, looking up at me.  
"What's wrong?" I smiled slightly, and tossed one of the small pillows at him.  
"Nothing, sleep." He yawned as I stretched, pacing around the room. He watched me, closing his eyes once more and giving me a chance to look at him. I stared for a moment, but as soon as he opened his eyes I pried my own away to stare at a crack on the wall, just thinking. I could lose Neil doing this. But I wasn't going to give up. I wasn't going to stay locked in a falling-apart motel room while innocent people were put into jail and hurt. The thought came back to me, harsher this time as the younger man rubbed his eyes. I could lose Neil. I could lose him without him ever knowing…it had once… and here I am, still unable to say the words. I shook my head clear of the thoughts, focusing on getting Ryan out of there.  
"Got any ideas for breaking into jail?" I asked, looking over at him.  
"Ser-Ryan said lay low for awhile." He stated. I could tell he was tired from the running (who knows how far we went exactly, but even I was feeling weary), and I felt bad for stressing him out more, sure, but it's…  
"Better to start early." I stated. "Then we could at least prepare ourselves for what we're headed into." He grinned at me.  
"How come you weren't the captain?" I managed a weak grin.  
"Too pushy."  
"Captains are pushy."  
"I scare people." I smirked. "Good enough?"  
"Yes ma'am." I almost rolled my eyes. That was Neil. His only defense mechanism was humor, but somehow it worked. The burden got lighter, if only for a few moments. Yeah, that was Neil. And between my strength and his ability to lighten a mood, we were going to do this. I had no idea how, or when, but we were going to do this. Or die trying.  
~~~  
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	3. Going Incognito

A/N- Wonderous chapter three. Huzzah! *dances* They... still don't belong to me. *tear*  
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Chapter 3-  
  
I have to say this, Neil's been really gentlemanly about this whole thing. He let me have the bed, and even braved the outside to go food shopping. When he came back with food (enough for two weeks if we ate it sparingly), I looked up at him, a box of cookies in my hand.   
"Won't people get suspicious if we don't come out of the room for a week?" I questioned, quirking a brow. His ears, face, and neck turned pink, and I had a feeling that it spread all over his body. Note to self: Embarrass Neil when he's naked. I snapped myself out of it. "…What?"  
"I, er, told the guy not to bother us when I checked in." He stated.  
"Oh…" …why did I get the feeling that wasn't it? "And that's the reason you're red?"  
"Er… part of it?" I placed the cookies down on the counter.  
"What did you do?" I asked. He gave me a sort of 'Please, Jane, don't hurt me' smile.  
"I… I told him we were on our honey moon." I let that sink in for a second before my eyes narrowed.  
"I'll deal with it later." I told myself aloud, unpacking another bag.  
"C'mon, Jane, it was the only way I could think of that would be sensible! 'Don't bug us because our old Captain and his wife are crazy and after us' just doesn't sound normal to these people." He was pressed against my side, whether he knew it our not, and that along with his explanation made me nod.  
"You're right." He looked slightly surprised, then triumphant, and nodded.  
"Yeah. I know."  
"Now get ready." I said.   
"For what?" I grabbed my gun off the table, tossing the one with the safety on to him. I checked to see how many shots I had left. Three. It'd do. I grinned at him.  
"We're gonna go get Ryan. But first, we need to go shopping."  
  
~~~  
  
"Shopping", though horrific, was perfectly legal. The guns were just taken along so no maid or anything came along and found them. Yeah. Legal, alright, though some of the things in the store should have had built in censors. And do you know what? I hate dresses. I hate them. But it could get me the key card, which would get me Ryan back safe, right? I looked myself over in the mirror. A pair of fake glasses rested on my nose, and a fake ID card hung around my neck, courtesy of Neil. It stopped right before the dress, which was black and slinky, with small straps. It hugged what curves I had, stopping about three inches above my knees. Nude panty hose and knee high boots (which were comfortable and good for running, I noted happily) completed the outfit. My hair was down, curled slightly, while my eyes had color contacts in them to make them green. I had applied a thin layer of peach eye shadow and black mascara to them. Finishing it off was colorless, shiny lip gloss on my lips. As I started out the door towards the small "living room", I wished I would never have to wear this outfit again.  
Neil, apparently, had a totally different idea.  
"Wow." was the first thing out of his mouth.  
"Do you think they'll know it's me?" I questioned, ignoring him.  
"Not unless they take fingerprints." He was ogling, but I couldn't deal with it right now.   
"Then let's go."  
  
~~~  
  
I had thought about how hard this was going to be many times. It actually was pretty easy. I had slipped past the first two guards easily, and now I was at the key card room. I grabbed the card that read .Unlimited Access. before turning and slipping it in one of my boots. A guard came up behind me.  
"What do you think you're doing, miss?" He asked, glaring slightly.  
"I… I think I'm lost." I said, pulling the innocent-and-lost act.  
"Most obviously. Now, run along cutie." I had to restrain myself from punching the guy. He disappeared, and I headed towards Ryan's cell. He was in the opposite corner now, and I looked up as I approached. I touched a bar, sticking my hand through before motioning for him to come over. A second later I was pushed up against the bars, and the last thing I saw before I was knocked unconscious were Ryan's wide eyes.  
  
~~~  
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	4. Captured

A/N- Whoo hoo! Chapter four! *dance* They still don't belong to me... though I own plushies of them! *tosses her imaginary plushies in the air*  
  
Ryan's slightly OOC in this. My fricking HERO, and proof to Terra's cupid theory, but still OOC. *grins* Too bad.   
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Chapter 4-  
  
When I woke up I was laying on the bed in the cell. I had no doubt that Ryan had done it, since my head was throbbing from whatever I got hit with, and they probably originally threw me in the corner. I was slightly surprised that they put us in the same cell. Probably thought they'd give us some time to chat before they killed us. I rubbed the side of my boot casually to check for the keycard. It was still there, and I almost sighed with relief. At least we'd be able to get out of here. As I sat up, I saw Ryan peering over at me from the bench on the other side of the cell. He was wearing a look that said "What did I tell you" mixed with "Thanks for trying." I threw my legs over the side of the bed, making sure to keep them together as I sat there.  
"It worked in my head." I muttered, unable to resist grinning slightly. He grinned back at me. At least he seemed to improve slightly with me here.  
"Where's the other half of the Duo That Doesn't Quit or Listen?" He raised an eyebrow. I shrugged.  
"I told him to leave if I wasn't out in time." I stretched my legs, standing.  
"You really think he's going to leave if you don't get out?" I looked at him.  
"Neil's smarter than I am. He uses his head before he runs into things." Ryan motioned to my outfit.  
"And you just happened to have that whole ensemble lying around and were waiting for a chance to kick ass in it?"  
"It was half-assed, okay? I came in without any protection and now we're both stuck in here because of it. I don't think straight when my friends are hurt. It's what happened at the hangar, remember? You got hurt, Neil got killed, I couldn't even fight?"  
"Jane… You never told him, did you?" I acted like I didn't know or care.  
"I never told him what?"  
"Don't play stupid, Jane. You love him, and he loves you. And whether you two know it or not it's so goddamn obvious it gets annoying when you both deny it." I looked away silently. "And love is enough to send him in here after you."  
"Shit." I spoke. I looked over at him, trying to hide most of my worry. "If he gets hurt because of me being stupid…" I trailed off. I had been stupid once, let my guard down to try to tell him how I felt. And how had that resulted? In both of us dying. I shook my head. "If he gets hurt then I'll kill whoever did it."  
"If you can get out of here." I sat down next to him on the bench and he put an arm around me for comfort. "If they do get him… and bring him here… they'll probably beat him up right in front of us. So just, do what you're best at. Hide your feelings, maybe they'll go easy on him. If they see it hurts you they might even kill him, so just… don't think about it until they leave. Alright?" I looked up at him, studying his face slightly before nodding. He looked sick, slightly haunted, and though a small part of him was crazy because of what they had done to him (whatever that might've been), the rest was still caring, loving, teddy-bear-resembling Ryan. One of my best friends, one who I would die for, or would die for me.   
  
~~~  
  
We talked for a half an hour, and I told him about what was going on in the world, as well as how Neil and I had gotten out. Exactly forty-five minutes later, fifteen minutes after I had told Neil to leave, he was dragged in by another guard, already unconscious and battered. I had to repeat Ryan's words over and over in my head, forcing myself not to care, or cry out, or run over. I stared at his body to show the man tugging him I didn't care. I gave the guard a "So?" look. He threw Neil into the cell with us, literally. The poor guy landed in a heap on the floor, still knocked out. The guard smirked and left to do his rounds, and Ryan and I hurried over to help Neil up. He had my place on the bed now, and I sat by his side, trying to clean off some of his wounds. He had gotten beat up pretty badly, but from the bruises on that guard and his own knuckles, he had done more than his fair share of fighting. Ryan sat on the bench again, close in case I needed him, but far enough away because he knew. He knew I needed to be next to Neil and take care of him, because it was my fault he was here in the first place.  
When he stirred, I ached with sadness, happiness, and anger. He tried to sit up.  
"I wouldn't if I were you." I was on my knees by the bed, a piece of his shirt that I had torn off to clean his wounds with in my hand. He opened an eye, and looked at me.  
"Funny, I thought that would work." He managed, even though I was glaring daggers at him.   
"Why don't you listen?" I said, unable to control it.  
"You're one to talk." Ryan spoke up from the corner, a grin on his face. I glared at him too.  
"Hey, Ryan." Neil said without even looking over.  
"Hey, Neil. How you feeling?" I crossed my arms, waiting for the male bonding experience to draw to a close.  
"Like I got the shit kicked out of me. What about you?"  
"Pretty close to that."  
"You two can shut up any time now." I nearly growled it out.  
"Sorry, Jane, go back to yelling at me. Like I haven't learned my lesson." I stared at him, and my eyes softened.   
"I told you to leave." I stated, more stern but less harsh than my 'Why don't you listen' had been.  
"I couldn't leave you here."  
"Jesus, Neil, there's a reason I told you to. If I couldn't handle it I didn't expect you to be able to." Wrong choice of words, Jane. Wrong choice. His beautiful eyes, usually cheery, narrowed, and he sat up, flinching only slightly because of his wounds.  
"Well I'm sorry, Ms. I-can-fight. I didn't make it into the Deep Eyes with just my technological knowledge, yanno."  
"Neil, I didn't mean--"  
"I know what you meant, Jane. I just thought I would come after you because people in here are disturbed and might do things that you can't control." I raised my eyebrow.  
"Like what?"  
"Gang rape." I couldn't keep myself from laughing at that one, because he was serious. "It isn't funny! You walk in here with a scrap of tissue paper on and boots up to your …your… … and you expect them not to even think about doing something?" I shook my head.  
"I don't think we have to worry about me getting gang raped, Neil. Besides, the only thing that they want to do to me right now is kill me."  
"You don't know that. They could rape you then kill you." I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye, and I looked at Ryan. He was still on the bench but leaned forward, his head in his hands as his body shook with laughter. "Why do you people find her getting raped funny?!"   
"Because you two are so unbelievably stupid." Ryan was still laughing, but he didn't say why, thankfully.  
"Gee thanks." Neil said sulkily, flopping down on the bed again. When his body hit the hard mattress, he flinched. "Ow." …I could've told him not to do that. I spit on the scrap of shirt slightly, and he opened an eye, holding my wrist so I couldn't touch it to the cut on his forehead. "What are you doing?" he asked.  
"I'm cleaning you up, now let go of me."  
"With SPIT?" He made a face.  
"Do you see anything else?" I managed to touch it to his cut, and though he made a face at first, he let me clean him up. After he felt asleep I smoothed his hair a bit before turning back to Ryan.  
"Nothing there. Nothin' whatsoever." I thought he was out of his mind again, but I saw him smirk at me and Neil, and I walked over, flopping down next to him quietly. He fell asleep a few minutes later, and I formed a plan in my head.  
~~~  
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	5. Feelings Revealed

A/N- I guess I should tell you all that if something's wrong with these, they aren't beta-read or spell checked... I should get in the habit of doing that, eh?   
...Still not mine. But I can bend them to my will!  
  
~~~  
Chapter 5-  
  
We were in there a week when I decided to act. It was quarter past three in the morning, and amazingly we were all still awake at the time. I stood up.   
"What do you say we get out of here?" I whispered quietly, so I didn't wake or alert anyone. They looked up from their conversation about what happened to Dr. Sid.   
"Love to, Jane, but we kind of can't? I'm thinking if I wave my hands it won't work this time." I nearly cringed at the memory as the words escaped his lips.  
"We don't need your hands to be waved." I stated, slipping two of my fingers inside my boot and pulling out the key card. I gave them both a 'Shut up and come on' look before either could yell at me. Sticking my arm through the bars, I slipped the card in and swiped it. The door slid open, and we all hurried out, with me in the lead and Ryan in the back. A guard approached us, but didn't even mutter out a "Hey!" before I kicked him in the stomach, leaving him doubled over and gasping for air. Ryan took out one that came after us armed, and we made it out, Ryan fine, Neil slightly battered, and me with a bullet hole in my arm again. It hurt like hell, but it was dark enough for no one to notice as Neil tried to get one of the military vehicles to start. He succeeded, and I hopped into the back, holding my arm so I didn't leave any blood for them to find me with. We stopped a block or two from the motel, dumping the Jeep and walking the rest of the way. As soon as we went in, Neil locked the door, and I walked past them quietly as I headed for the bathroom. They looked at each other, then at me when I stood near the sink, not closing the door. I searched the cabinets for something to cover my wound in and they walked over.  
"What's the matter?" Neil asked. I looked up, with a piece of gauze between my teeth as I looked for athletic tape, or something that could hold it. Hell, even Scotch tape would've done.  
"She got shot." Ryan said, walking around to my other side and taking my arm. It tingled, then hurt, and I tugged it away. Neil had that 'Oh my God the world is going to end' look on again, and I ignored it, sticking it under the faucet to clean it off. It hurt, but I barely flinched since they were there.  
"Jane you sure you don't need stitches for that?"  
"Neil, we just broke out of jail. If I head to a hospital now, it'll be all over the news tomorrow, and they'd send me right back. I can deal with it until we figure this out." Ryan decided this would be a nice time to bow out, and headed to the kitchen for something to eat. Neil stayed and helped me bandage my arm even though I had just bit his head off. He took my arm, placing a piece of gauze to it. It hurt as his fingers moved over it, but at the same time, those fingers made it feel better. I looked up at him, and our eyes met, faces about five inches apart. We started to move closer, but at the last minute I looked down. He brushed my arm slightly. "All better." He said, backing up. "You need anything?" You. I thought, hoping he could hear my thoughts. You, you, you. But I shook my head.  
"No, I'm fine." I walked out to where Ryan was at the counter, a sandwich in hand.  
"Good." He walked in behind me. "Because do you mind telling me what the hell that was?!"  
"A bullet wound?" I gave him a 'Are you feeling alright' look.  
"I know what that was. What was with you hiding the card while we suffered in there for a week?!" Ryan's chewing slowed slightly, and I looked at him.  
"I had to let them think that they had us before I did anything, Neil."  
"How do I know they didn't make you weird too in there?" I was rubbing my arm when he said that, and I raised my eyes to meet his.  
"You don't. You just have to trust me."  
"How can I trust you if you wanted us to rot in there?" He glared at me, and deep inside, I felt guilty and upset. Neil didn't trust me. We had been friends for a long time, close despite my first attempts. And from what Ryan said, we were more than friends. I had denied my feelings for him for a long time, but this hurt. It stung, even. How could he even think I would want to hurt the two of them?  
"Neil, she did the right thing." Neil looked at Ryan.  
"You too?"  
"Neil, if she was on their side they wouldn't have locked her up and shot her." Neil started to try and prove a point, and I walked out of the room. I closed myself in the bedroom and began to change. I even got a little teary despite myself, but I willed it away as I pulled my shirt over my head, wincing slightly at the pain in my arm. I headed back out to the living room, only to find Neil on the couch, biting his lip. The shower was running in the bathroom and the door was locked. I stood in the doorway of the bedroom, my arms crossed in front of my chest. He looked up.  
"I'm sorry." I said quietly.  
"No… I am… I didn't trust you and I should have." He stood, walking over, his hands shoved in his pockets. I studied his face.  
"You're right. You should have. But you didn't and you had reasons. I should've told you." His right hand came out of his pocket and brushed my cheek. My heart jumped in spite of me, but I remained outwardly cool.  
"You did the right thing. I just… after what happened to Gray and Aki… I can't let that happen to you." I don't know what did it, but my insides did flutter. Maybe it was what Ryan had said. 'And he loves you.'   
"It's not going to happen to me." I said, but my voice came out just above a whisper.   
"Good." His voice level matched mine, and I noticed we were drifting towards each other again. This time I didn't pull away, and his lips met mine rather timidly. After I kissed him back instead of slapping him, like the back of my mind was telling me to, he gave me a more mature kiss. And like a fool in love, I returned it. The shower turned off, and I began to stop, only pulling away when the door to the bathroom unlocked. I looked at him, then at Ryan when he came out of the bathroom. Brushing past him, I headed to the kitchen, my mind still foggy with what had just happened. And for some reason, Ryan had some smug smile plastered on.  
~~~  
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